Page 46 of No Asylum Here

"Tell me more about these monsters.”

"They live outside.”

"I have a window in my office, and I haven't seen any monsters. Just fog."

She rolled her eyes, as if I were the one being obtuse. “They’re hiding in the fog. You’ll become one of them too if you let them shoot you up with the green stuff.”

“So what are you wanting to see Dr. Rook’s office for, anyway?”

I couldn’t give her an answer; I didn’t know what I was looking for. It’s not like Seventeen gave me much of a lead. He’d made me degrade myself for peanuts. Here’s hoping he didn’t send me down a pointless rabbit hole. If he were going to fuck me, he’d actually fuck me. So he could gloat in my face.

“I— I don’t know, really. All I have to go off of is a feeling.”

“What kind of feeling?”

My jaw set. “I can’t really say.”

“Why?” she asked in the cadence she used when Joanie was speaking, with a shake of her dolly for the full effect.

For an eighteen-year-old—allegedly—Bunny was very childlike. Age regression was the name of the syndrome, often used as a coping mechanism. I couldn’t blame her. Her innocence had been stolen much too early in her life. It was healthy for her to hold onto her inner child for as long as she needed.

“I’m just looking for answers. To a lot of questions,” I told her with a gentle smile, squeezing her fingers still threaded through mine. She hadn’t let go of my hand since we left the chapel.

Her head flopped to one side, and I imagined invisible bunny ears perking up with her palpable curiosity. “What kind of questions?”

“Why it feels like I’m…” I paused in search of the right words. “Underwater? Since I got here, my head has been filled with static. I’m having strange dreams. I’m seeing things.”

“Maybe you need a lobotomy.” She pointed to her scar with her doll, speaking in its voice.

“Yeah… Let’s call that Plan B, Joanie.”

It didn’t surprise me when Bunny led me down to the basement. It made sense that Rook’s old office would be on the same level as his laboratory. What threw me for a loop was when we stepped into a small service elevator tucked in a corner, one you wouldn’t see unless you knew it was there.

“Why did you lead me down here only to take us up again?” I asked when Bunny stabbed the upward arrow button.

“This elevator is the only one in the whole building that goes up to the bell tower. There used to be stairs, but those are blocked off now. This is the only way up.”

“Rook’s old office is in the bell tower?”

“He didn’t like his dad. He wanted to work as far away from him as possible.”

The inside of the elevator looked like it had gone through a nuclear fallout. “Uh, is this safe?”

Bunny giggled. “Sure.”

Her answer didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Cautiously, I stepped inside, and it wasn’t until the doors rattled shut that I noticed the claw marks in the metal, as if an animal had been trapped inside.

As I was about to ask Bunny about the scratches, the elevator doors parted again with a ding, and my jaw dropped at the view greeting us.

While most of the original building had been renovated when it became a hospital, with many of the original Gothic features stripped, the bell tower had remained untouched.

The bell tower was more spacious than I’d imagined. There were several levels, with a large opening in the ceiling where the bell could be seen high above, attached to the sloped roof.

“Does the bell still work?”

“Used to. Hasn’t since Patient Seventeen became one of us.” The girl skipped out of the elevator to a far corner of the tower’s base level, where a heavy door stood. I followed her with a far more cautious gait.

Nailed into the door was an engraved name plate reading: